morning tea at the Miyakoda"s
Kristin tries on her flower vase/hat from Miyakoda-san
I like GIn from North Carolina!
Miyakoda-san & Sanpei-san (Yuri's Father)
Rabbit manju = sweet cakes made of rice. This is the year of the rabbit.
Japanese Taxi's...just like the real thing only smaller
Lunch at the office. kanpai!
Tamachi, the area of Tokyo where we had our Japanese wedding party
View of "To The Herbs" the Italian Restaurant in GranPark, a plaza designed by Keikan Sekkei in collaboration with Robert Zion, and the venue for the party
It is so hard to find a place in Tokyo that has an outdoor dining terrace, and the fact that this restaurant has one is largely due to the fact that Miyakoda-san brought in an American landscape architect to help guide the design as they developed the project.
Pre-party toasts
The full Benne-koda Clan
Kanpai!!!
Surely she just said something flattering(?)
My turn to butcher the Japanese language. At least it was only 3 sentences, which took 14 minutes to get out.
Tomoyuki(cousin), Yoichi(cousin), Sho(cousin's son), Kinoto, & Aya
Kinoto stealing drinks
"I built this"
Kayo-chan (Aya's cousin & Watanabe-san's wife) and her father (Aya's uncle)
Kanda-san a friend from LSU
Kinoto and Yuri served at MC's for the party and kept things rolling...while I made sure everything was running smoothly at the bar
The spread
Pouring beer for Masayoshi (Aya's Uncle on her moms side). Pouring beer for your guests is a big part of a Japanese wedding.
1 for you 2 for me...Pouring a beer for Takeheko (Aya's Cousin - son of Masayoshi)
Yoichi, Aya's cousin on her mom's side (Akiyoshi's son)
Mom & dad talking with Mr. Kano - a friend of Miyakoda-sans from college (mountain club)
Abe-san & Masayoshi (Yamanaka-san) celebrating
Aya's turn to pour beers
Aya's uncle on her mothers side - Akiyoshi-san
Showing pictures from the wedding in NC
Scott with Yui (Yoichi's daughter)
Dad's turn
obviously she does not like people
perhaps I should be worried?
Talking baseball with Sho
Aya & Kinoto on the beach
Me & dad
time for the toasts
anyone know this 3rd world dictator?
"To The Herbs" - where the beer flows like wine
Amano-san (Nobuko) a friend from LSU
Kinoto brought the house down. WIsh I understood the other 87% of it
Takehiko finished things out with a traditional Japanese ceremony called "sanbonjime" where everyone claps 3 times x 3 times in unison to end a celebration
Arigatou Gozaizasu! You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here
The party crew. Yukio (far right) gives us the rock star send off we deserve.
